Extending Use of a Cellular Communication Capabilities in a Wireless Device to Another Device

ABSTRACT

Extending cellular telecommunication service from a first UE to another device. The first UE may register for cellular telecommunication service with a cellular network using a first cellular service account, using a cellular communication link via a cellular radio. A second device may be discovered and a communication link may be established between the first UE and the second device. The second device may be registered to use cellular telecommunication capability provided by the first UE. Communications between the second device and the cellular network may be conveyed via the communication link between the first UE and the second device and the cellular communication link. Conveying communications between the second device and the cellular network may provide use of the first cellular service account for cellular telecommunication service to the second device.

PRIORITY INFORMATION

This application is a divisional application which claims priority toU.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/671,789, entitled “Extending Use ofa Cellular Communication Capabilities in a Wireless Device to AnotherDevice”, filed Nov. 8, 2012.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to wireless devices, and moreparticularly to a system and method for a wireless device to extend useof its cellular communication capabilities to additional devices.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

Wireless communication systems are rapidly growing in usage. Further,wireless communication technology has evolved from voice-onlycommunications to also include the transmission of data, such asInternet and multimedia content. As use of wireless communicationtechnology has proliferated, an ever increasing number of devices arebeing provided with wireless communication capability, such that it iscommon for a user (or group of users, such as a family) to possessmultiple wireless devices.

Additionally, there exist numerous different wireless communicationtechnologies and standards. Some examples of wireless communicationstandards include GSM, UMTS (WCDMA), LTE, LTE Advanced (LTE-A), 3GPP2CDMA2000 (e.g., 1xRTT, 1xEV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), IEEE 802.11 (WLAN orWi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), Bluetooth, and others. Some of thesestandards may serve complementary functions while others may typicallybe considered competitors attempting to fulfill similar needs amongstconsumers. Accordingly, it is common for at least some wireless devicesto communicate using multiple wireless technologies or standards. Forexample, some wireless devices (such as some smart phones, etc.), may becapable of cellular communication as well as Wi-Fi communication. Otherwireless devices (such as some tablets, portable media players, etc.)may be capable of Wi-Fi communication but not cellular communication.

Thus, it is possible that a user (or group of users) might have a numberof wireless devices, among which at least one functions as a cellulartelephone, while at least one does not have cellular communicationcapability. In this case, it is currently not possible for the wirelessdevice without cellular communication capability to utilize the cellularcommunication capability of the cellular telephone, e.g., to receive andplace phone calls. However, at least on some occasions, a user may havea wireless device without cellular communication capability readilyavailable (e.g., if the user is reading on a tablet or watching contenton a media player, among various possibilities) but not a cellulartelephone (e.g., if the cellular telephone is charging on a dockingstation, among various possibilities). If the user wants to place orreceive a call on such occasions, the user is not able to do so usingthe readily accessible wireless device without cellular communicationcapability, but must instead use the less convenient cellular telephoneor forego placing or receiving the call altogether. Accordingly,improvements in wireless devices and wireless communications would bedesirable.

SUMMARY

In light of the foregoing and other concerns, it would be desirable toprovide a way for a wireless user equipment (UE) device with cellularcommunication capability to extend the use of that cellularcommunication capability to other devices. Accordingly, embodiments arepresented herein of a method for a UE to extend use of its cellularcommunication capability to additional devices, and a UE configured toimplement the method. The UE may include one or more radios (e.g.,including at least a cellular radio), including one or more antennas,for performing wireless communications with base stations (BSs), and/orfor performing peer-to-peer wireless communications. The UE device mayalso include a processing element configured to implement part or all ofthe method (e.g., by executing program instructions). In addition, theUE device may include a non-transitory computer accessible memorymedium, which may store program instructions executable by the UE.

For example, if a user is in the vicinity of their cellular device butanother wireless device is more readily available, it would be desirableto provide the user with the ability to place and receive calls from themore convenient wireless device, e.g., by extending the cellularcommunication capability of the cellular device to the more convenientwireless device via a wireless link (e.g., via a Wi-Fi connectionthrough an access point, or via a peer-to-peer Wi-Fi link).

Alternatively, the user might not be in the immediate vicinity of theircellular device, but may have available a device which is capable ofcommunicating with the cellular device via a wide area network (WAN),such as the Internet. It would similarly be desirable to provide theuser with the ability to place and receive calls from the moreconvenient device e.g., by extending the cellular communicationcapability of the cellular device to the more convenient device via theWAN. Such communication could be performed via a server (e.g., a cloudservice providing the connection between the associated devices) and/orvia a direct IP link.

Providing the capability to extend cellular telecommunication serviceobtained by a UE to additional devices via a local wireless connectionor a WAN may further open up additional possibilities which may bedesirable to users. For example, it is possible that incoming callscould be selectively forwarded by the UE to certain devices registeredto use the UE's cellular telecommunication capabilities. This might bedesirable, for example, if the cellular account were being shared bymultiple users, such as a family. Thus, based on address book contactinformation (or another basis), incoming calls from certain contactsmight be forwarded to devices associated with those contacts but not todevices which are not associated with those contacts. As anotherpossibility, it might be preferable to forward incoming calls only toregistered devices which are being actively used, e.g., in order toavoid draining battery power of devices which are not actively beingused (e.g., since it may be that no user is nearby such a device).Alternatively, incoming calls could be forwarded to all registereddevices, enabling any such devices to answer those incoming calls.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A better understanding of the present subject matter can be obtainedwhen the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment isconsidered in conjunction with the following drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary (and simplified) wireless communicationsystem;

FIG. 2 illustrates a base station in communication with user equipment;

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a UE;

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a base station;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart diagram illustrating an exemplary method for awireless device to extend use of its cellular communication capabilityto another device; and

FIG. 6 is a flowchart diagram illustrating an exemplary method for adevice to use the cellular communication capability of a wirelessdevice.

While the features described herein are susceptible to variousmodifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof areshown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described indetail. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detaileddescription thereto are not intended to be limiting to the particularform disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover allmodifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spiritand scope of the subject matter as defined by the appended claims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS Terms

The following is a glossary of terms used in the present disclosure:

Memory Medium—Any of various types of memory devices or storage devices.The term “memory medium” is intended to include an installation medium,e.g., a CD-ROM, floppy disks, or tape device; a computer system memoryor random access memory such as DRAM, DDR RAM, SRAM, EDO RAM, RambusRAM, etc.; a non-volatile memory such as a Flash, magnetic media, e.g.,a hard drive, or optical storage; registers, or other similar types ofmemory elements, etc. The memory medium may include other types ofmemory as well or combinations thereof. In addition, the memory mediummay be located in a first computer system in which the programs areexecuted, or may be located in a second different computer system whichconnects to the first computer system over a network, such as theInternet. In the latter instance, the second computer system may provideprogram instructions to the first computer for execution. The term“memory medium” may include two or more memory mediums which may residein different locations, e.g., in different computer systems that areconnected over a network. The memory medium may store programinstructions (e.g., embodied as computer programs) that may be executedby one or more processors.

Carrier Medium—a memory medium as described above, as well as a physicaltransmission medium, such as a bus, network, and/or other physicaltransmission medium that conveys signals such as electrical,electromagnetic, or digital signals.

Programmable Hardware Element—includes various hardware devicescomprising multiple programmable function blocks connected via aprogrammable interconnect. Examples include FPGAs (Field ProgrammableGate Arrays), PLDs (Programmable Logic Devices), FPOAs (FieldProgrammable Object Arrays), and CPLDs (Complex PLDs). The programmablefunction blocks may range from fine grained (combinatorial logic or lookup tables) to coarse grained (arithmetic logic units or processorcores). A programmable hardware element may also be referred to as“reconfigurable logic”.

Computer System—any of various types of computing or processing systems,including a personal computer system (PC), mainframe computer system,workstation, network appliance, Internet appliance, personal digitalassistant (PDA), personal communication device, smart phone, televisionsystem, grid computing system, or other device or combinations ofdevices. In general, the term “computer system” can be broadly definedto encompass any device (or combination of devices) having at least oneprocessor that executes instructions from a memory medium.

User Equipment (UE) (or “UE Device”)—any of various types of computersystems devices which are mobile or portable and which performs wirelesscommunications. Examples of UE devices include mobile telephones orsmart phones (e.g., iPhone™, Android™-based phones), portable gamingdevices (e.g., Nintendo DS™, PlayStation Portable™, Gameboy Advance™,iPhone™), laptops, PDAs, portable Internet devices, music players, datastorage devices, or other handheld devices, etc. In general, the term“UE” or “UE device” can be broadly defined to encompass any electronic,computing, and/or telecommunications device (or combination of devices)which is easily transported by a user and capable of wirelesscommunication.

Base Station—The term “Base Station” has the full breadth of itsordinary meaning, and at least includes a wireless communication stationinstalled at a fixed location and used to communicate as part of awireless telephone system or radio system.

Processing Element—refers to various elements or combinations ofelements. Processing elements include, for example, circuits such as anASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), portions or circuits ofindividual processor cores, entire processor cores, individualprocessors, programmable hardware devices such as a field programmablegate array (FPGA), and/or larger portions of systems that includemultiple processors.

Automatically—refers to an action or operation performed by a computersystem (e.g., software executed by the computer system) or device (e.g.,circuitry, programmable hardware elements, ASICs, etc.), without userinput directly specifying or performing the action or operation. Thusthe term “automatically” is in contrast to an operation being manuallyperformed or specified by the user, where the user provides input todirectly perform the operation. An automatic procedure may be initiatedby input provided by the user, but the subsequent actions that areperformed “automatically” are not specified by the user, i.e., are notperformed “manually”, where the user specifies each action to perform.For example, a user filling out an electronic form by selecting eachfield and providing input specifying information (e.g., by typinginformation, selecting check boxes, radio selections, etc.) is fillingout the form manually, even though the computer system must update theform in response to the user actions. The form may be automaticallyfilled out by the computer system where the computer system (e.g.,software executing on the computer system) analyzes the fields of theform and fills in the form without any user input specifying the answersto the fields. As indicated above, the user may invoke the automaticfilling of the form, but is not involved in the actual filling of theform (e.g., the user is not manually specifying answers to fields butrather they are being automatically completed). The presentspecification provides various examples of operations beingautomatically performed in response to actions the user has taken.

FIGS. 1-2—Communication System

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary (and simplified) wireless communicationsystem. It is noted that the system of FIG. 1 is merely one example of apossible system, and embodiments may be implemented in any of varioussystems, as desired.

As shown, the exemplary wireless communication system includes an accesspoint 102 which communicates over a transmission medium with one or moreuser devices 106-1 through 106-N. Each of the user devices may bereferred to herein as a “user equipment” (UE). Thus, the user devicesare referred to as UEs or UE devices.

The access point 102 may be an access point providing a wireless localarea network (WLAN). The access point 102 may be equipped to communicatewith a network 100 (e.g., a wide area network (WAN), such as theInternet, among various possibilities). Thus, the access point 102 mayfacilitate communication between the UEs 106 and/or between the UEs 106and the network 100. The access point 102 and the UEs 106 may beconfigured to communicate over the transmission medium using Wi-Fi,including any of various versions of IEEE 802.11 (e.g., a, b, g, n, ac,etc.).

As shown, multiple UEs 106 (e.g., UE 106A and UE 106B) may also beconfigured to communicate directly with each other, e.g., using apeer-to-peer wireless communication protocol. For example, Bluetooth(“BT”, including BT low energy (“BLE”), Alternate MAC/PHY (“AMP”),and/or other BT versions or features), Wi-Fi ad-hoc/peer-to-peer, and/orany other peer-to-peer wireless communication protocol may be used tofacilitate direct communications between two UEs 106.

In addition, at least one UE 106 (e.g., UE 106A) may be configured tocommunicate with a base station 104. The base station 104 may be a basetransceiver station (BTS) or cell site (a “cellular base station”), andmay include hardware that enables wireless communication with UEs 106according to one or more cellular communication protocols. The UE 106and the cellular base station 104 may communicate using any of variouscellular communication technologies such as GSM, UMTS (WCDMA), LTE,LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), 3GPP2 CDMA2000 (e.g., 1xRTT, 1xEV-DO, HRPD,eHRPD), etc.

As shown, the cellular base station may be equipped to communicate witha network 108 (e.g., a core network of a cellular service provider, atelecommunication network such as a public switched telephone network(PSTN), and/or the Internet, among various possibilities). Thus, thebase station 104 may facilitate communication between UEs 106 and/orbetween the UEs 106 and the network 108. In particular, the cellularbase station 104 may provide UEs 106 with various telecommunicationcapabilities, such as voice and SMS services (e.g., typically viacircuit-switched wireless links) and/or data services (e.g., typicallyvia packet-switched wireless links).

A UE 106 may be capable of communicating using multiple wirelesscommunication standards. For example, the UE 106 may be configured tocommunicate using at least one peer-to-peer wireless communicationprotocol (e.g., BT, Wi-Fi peer-to-peer, etc.) and at least one cellularcommunication protocol (e.g., GSM, UMTS (WCDMA), LTE, LTE-Advanced(LTE-A), 3GPP2 CDMA2000 (e.g., 1xRTT, 1xEV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), etc.). TheUE 106 may also or alternatively be configured to communicate using oneor more global navigational satellite systems (GNSS, e.g., GPS orGLONASS), one or more mobile television broadcasting standards (e.g.,ATSC-M/H or DVB-H), and/or any other wireless communication protocol, ifdesired. Other combinations of wireless communication standards(including more than two wireless communication standards) are alsopossible.

FIG. 2 illustrates user equipment 106 (e.g., one of the devices 106Athrough 106N) in communication with the cellular base station 104. TheUE 106 may be a device with wireless network connectivity such as amobile phone, a hand-held device, a computer or a tablet, or virtuallyany type of wireless device.

The UE 106 may include a processor that is configured to execute programinstructions stored in memory. The UE 106 may perform any of the methodsembodiments described herein by executing such stored instructions.Alternatively, or in addition, the UE 106 may include a programmablehardware element such as an FPGA (field-programmable gate array) that isconfigured to perform any of the method embodiments described herein, orany portion of any of the method embodiments described herein.

The UE 106 may be configured to communicate using any of multiplewireless communication protocols. For example, the UE 106 may beconfigured to communicate using two or more of CDMA2000, LTE, LTE-A,Wi-Fi, or GNSS. Other combinations of wireless communication standardsare also possible.

The UE 106 may include one or more antennas for communicating using oneor more wireless communication protocols. The UE 106 may share one ormore parts of a receive and/or transmit chain between multiple wirelesscommunication standards; for example, the UE 106 might be configured tocommunicate using either of CDMA2000 (1xRTT/1xEV-DO/HRPD/eHRPD) or LTEusing partially or entirely shared wireless communication circuitry(e.g., using a shared radio or at least shared radio components). Theshared communication circuitry may include a single antenna, or mayinclude multiple antennas (e.g., for MIMO) for performing wirelesscommunications. Alternatively, the UE 106 may include separate transmitand/or receive chains (e.g., including separate antennas and other radiocomponents) for each wireless communication protocol with which it isconfigured to communicate. As a further possibility, the UE 106 mayinclude one or more radios or radio components which are shared betweenmultiple wireless communication protocols, and one or more radios orradio components which are used exclusively by a single wirelesscommunication protocol. For example, the UE 106 might include a sharedradio for communicating using either of LTE or CDMA2000 1xRTT, andseparate radios for communicating using each of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.Other configurations are also possible.

FIG. 3—Exemplary Block Diagram of a UE

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a UE 106. As shown, theUE 106 may include a system on chip (SOC) 300, which may includeportions for various purposes. For example, as shown, the SOC 300 mayinclude processor(s) 302 which may execute program instructions for theUE 106 and display circuitry 304 which may perform graphics processingand provide display signals to the display 360. The processor(s) 302 mayalso be coupled to memory management unit (MMU) 340, which may beconfigured to receive addresses from the processor(s) 302 and translatethose addresses to locations in memory (e.g., memory 306, read onlymemory (ROM) 350, NAND flash memory 310) and/or to other circuits ordevices, such as the display circuitry 304, wireless communicationcircuitry 330 (also referred to as a “radio”), connector I/F 320, and/ordisplay 340. The MMU 340 may be configured to perform memory protectionand page table translation or set up. In some embodiments, the MMU 340may be included as a portion of the processor(s) 302.

As shown, the SOC 300 may be coupled to various other circuits of the UE106. For example, the UE 106 may include various types of memory (e.g.,including NAND flash 310), a connector interface 320 (e.g., for couplingto the computer system), the display 340, and wireless communicationcircuitry 330 (e.g., for LTE, LTE-A, CDMA2000, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS,etc.).

As noted above, the UE 106 may be configured to communicate wirelesslyusing multiple wireless communication standards. As further noted above,in such instances, the wireless communication circuitry (radio(s)) 330may include radio components which are shared between multiple wirelesscommunication standards and/or radio components which are configuredexclusively for use according to a single wireless communicationstandard. As shown, the UE device 106 may include at least one antenna(and possibly multiple antennas, e.g., for MIMO and/or for implementingdifferent wireless communication technologies, among variouspossibilities), for performing wireless communication with basestations, access points, and/or other devices. For example, the UEdevice 106 may use antenna 335 to perform the wireless communication.

The UE 106 may also include and/or be configured for use with one ormore user interface elements. The user interface elements may includeany of various elements, such as display 340 (which may be a touchscreendisplay), a keyboard (which may be a discrete keyboard or may beimplemented as part of a touchscreen display), a mouse, a microphoneand/or speakers, one or more cameras, one or more buttons, and/or any ofvarious other elements capable of providing information to a user and/orreceiving/initerpreting user input.

As described herein, the UE 106 may include hardware and softwarecomponents for implementing features for extending use of cellularcommunication capabilities to another device, such as those describedherein with reference to, inter alia, FIG. 5 and/or FIG. 6. Theprocessor 302 of the UE device 106 may be configured to implement partor all of the features described herein, e.g., by executing programinstructions stored on a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitorycomputer-readable memory medium). Alternatively (or in addition),processor 302 may be configured as a programmable hardware element, suchas an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), or as an ASIC (ApplicationSpecific Integrated Circuit). Alternatively (or in addition) theprocessor 302 of the UE device 106, in conjunction with one or more ofthe other components 300, 304, 306, 310, 320, 330, 335, 340, 350, 360may be configured to implement part or all of the features describedherein, such as the features described herein with reference to, interalia, FIG. 5 and/or FIG. 6.

FIG. 4—Exemplary Block Diagram of a Base Station

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a cellular base station(BS) 104. It is noted that the base station of FIG. 4 is merely oneexample of a possible base station. As shown, the base station 104 mayinclude processor(s) 404 which may execute program instructions for thebase station 104. The processor(s) 404 may also be coupled to memorymanagement unit (MMU) 440, which may be configured to receive addressesfrom the processor(s) 404 and translate those addresses to locations inmemory (e.g., memory 460 and read only memory (ROM) 450) or to othercircuits or devices.

The base station 104 may include at least one network port 470. Thenetwork port 470 may be configured to couple to a telephone network andprovide a plurality of devices, such as UE devices 106, access to thetelephone network as described above in FIGS. 1 and 2.

The network port 470 (or an additional network port) may also oralternatively be configured to couple to a cellular network, e.g., acore network of a cellular service provider. The core network mayprovide mobility related services and/or other services to a pluralityof devices, such as UE devices 106. In some cases, the network port 470may couple to a telephone network via the core network, and/or the corenetwork may provide a telephone network (e.g., among other UE devicesserviced by the cellular service provider).

The base station 102 may include at least one antenna 434, and possiblymultiple antennas. The at least one antenna 434 may be configured tooperate as a wireless transceiver and may be further configured tocommunicate with UE devices 106 via radio 430. The antenna 434communicates with the radio 430 via communication chain 432.Communication chain 432 may be a receive chain, a transmit chain orboth. The radio 430 may be configured to communicate via variouswireless telecommunication standards, including, but not limited to,LTE, WCDMA, CDMA2000, etc.

The base station 104 may be configured to support extension of cellularcommunication to devices without native cellular communicationcapabilities. In particular, as described further subsequently herein,the BS 104 may include hardware and software components for implementing(or for use in conjunction with a UE 106 implementing) part or all of amethod for a UE 106 to extend the use of its cellular communicationcapabilities to another device.

The processor 404 of the base station 104 may be configured to implementpart or all of the methods described herein, e.g., by executing programinstructions stored on a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitorycomputer-readable memory medium). Alternatively, the processor 404 maybe configured as a programmable hardware element, such as an FPGA (FieldProgrammable Gate Array), or as an ASIC (Application Specific IntegratedCircuit), or a combination thereof.

FIGS. 5-6—Flowcharts

Currently, it is common that a user's subscription for cellular serviceis tied to a single specific cellular device. Even in the case of groupcellular subscriptions (e.g., family plans), it is generally required toobtain and assign a separate account (or possibly sub-account) and phonenumber for each device in the plan.

However, some groups (e.g., families) or individuals might wish to sharea cellular service account among multiple devices. In particular, it maybe common for some users to possess multiple devices, of which one ormore may include cellular communication capability (e.g., may includecellular communication circuitry/a cellular radio and be configured forcellular telecommunications), while one or more may not include beconfigured for cellular communication (e.g., may not include a cellularradio or other cellular communication circuitry), but may includealternative wireless and/or wired communication capabilities, such as aWi-Fi radio/circuitry/software. In such cases it would be desirable toprovide a way for a cellular device to provide the use of its cellulartelecommunication capability to other devices, potentially increasingthe convenience and utility of all of the devices involved.

Accordingly, certain embodiments of the present disclosure relate to amethod for a UE device to extend use of its cellular telecommunicationcapability to another device, and to a method for a device to use thecellular telecommunication capability of a UE. FIGS. 5-6 are flowchartdiagrams illustrating such a method. The methods shown in FIGS. 5-6 maybe used in conjunction with any of the computer systems or devices shownin the above Figures, among other devices. Some of the method elementsshown may be performed concurrently, in a different order than shown, ormay be omitted. Additional method elements may also be performed asdesired.

FIG. 5 relates, in particular, to a method for a UE to extend cellularcommunication capability provided by the UE to another device. Themethod may be performed by the UE itself. As noted above, the UE may beany of a variety of devices. A common example may include a smart phone,e.g., which is configured for wireless communication according to one ormore cellular communication protocols (e.g., UMTS, LTE, and/or CDMA2000,among various possibilities), Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth, and which isconfigured to execute a mobile operating system such as iOS™ orAndroid™. Of course, the UE may alternatively be any of a variety ofother types of device, as desired, including but not limited to tabletcomputers, e-readers, portable multimedia players, portable gamingsystems, and/or other cellular devices. Alternatively or additionally,the UE may be the UE device 106 described above in detail with referenceto FIG. 3. As shown, the method may operate as follows.

In 502, the UE may register for cellular telecommunication service witha cellular network. The registration may be performed via wirelesscommunication (e.g., via a cellular radio of the UE) with a base station(which may provide a cell) operated by the cellular network. Theregistration may include transmitting and receiving various dataconfiguring the UE according to various parameters according to whichthe cellular network operates and identifying the UE to the network(e.g., based on subscriber identity information associated with acellular service account and/or telephone number), among variouspossibilities. The actual nature of the registration process, includingthe types and content of data/messages transmitted between the UE andthe cellular network, may vary according to various implementations,e.g., depending on a cellular communication protocol used by the UE andthe cellular network and/or hardware and/or software configuration ofthe UE and the cellular network infrastructure. In general, registeringthe UE for cellular telecommunication service may enable the UE to placeand receive voice calls, SMS messages, and/or data via cellulartelecommunication with the cellular network.

In 504, the UE may register a second device with the UE to use thecellular telecommunication service. The second device may be any of avariety of types of device. For example, the second device may beanother UE, e.g., a substantially mobile device configured to performwireless communication, such as a tablet computer, a smart phone, aportable media player, or any of a variety of other types of UE.Alternatively, the second device may be a substantially stationarydevice, which may be configured for wireless and/or wired communication,such as a desktop computer, a television or other stationary mediaplayer, a gaming console, or any of a variety of other types of device.

Registering the second device with the UE may be performed in any of avariety of ways. As one example, the second device may be registered viapeer-to-peer Wi-Fi communication or Wi-Fi communication via a Wi-Fiaccess point, e.g., if the UE and the second device are within Wi-Ficommunication range of each other and both devices are configured toperform Wi-Fi communication. As another example, the second device maybe registered via a wide area network (WAN), such as the internet. Notethat, in some instances, the second device may not be configured forcellular communication (e.g., may not include a cellular radio).

In further detail, consider a situation in which the UE and the seconddevice are connected to a common Wi-Fi access point (e.g., are bothconnected to the same Wi-Fi network, such as a home Wi-Fi network). TheUE and the second device might discover each other using multicastdomain name system (mDNS) and establish a server/client connection, andthe UE might then provision the second device to use the UE's cellulartelecommunication capability.

Consider also an alternative situation in which the UE and the seconddevice are connected via a WAN (e.g., via one or more wired and/orwireless links, possibly including one or more of Wi-Fi, Ethernet,broadband over power line (BPL), etc.). The UE and the second devicemight each register with a server computer accessible via the WAN. Byregistering, the UE and the second device may be associated with eachother (e.g., by registering for use together and/or with a singleaccount, such as the cellular service account corresponding to the UEand/or an account with a third party providing the server), and thesecond device may be provisioned to use the UE's cellulartelecommunication capability.

In the case of a local connection or in the case of a WAN connectionbetween the UE and the second device, the discovery and provisionprocess could be automatic, manual, or partially automatic and partiallymanual. For example, the UE might prompt a user (e.g., via a userinterface), upon discovery of the second device on the Wi-Fi network orattempted registration of the second device via the WAN, as to whetheror not to provision/permit the discovered device to use cellulartelecommunication capability provided by the UE. Alternatively, the UEmight also require prompting by a user to initiate an attempt todiscover the second device, or the UE might instead automaticallydiscover and provision any other devices available via a local Wi-Finetwork or which have attempted to register with the UE via a WAN.

Further configuration details could also be determined (e.g.,automatically or manually) at that time or at another time, if desired.For example, it might be desirable to provide cellular telecommunicationcapabilities to certain devices only under certain circumstances.

As one example, the UE and the second device might establish a selectivecall forwarding policy. Thus, the UE might forward only certain incomingcalls to the second device, and/or forward incoming calls to the seconddevice only at certain times. An example of a situation in whichforwarding only certain incoming calls to the second device might bedesirable could be if the cellular service account were being sharedbetween multiple users. In this case, indications of incoming calls fromcontacts of a user of the second device might be forwarded to the seconddevice (possibly not alerting the user of the UE, e.g., if the incomingcall is not also a contact of a user of the UE), while indications ofincoming calls which are not from contacts of a user of the seconddevice might not be forwarded to the second device. Thus, for example, aparent might be the user of the UE, while a child might be the user ofthe second device; if the incoming call were from a friend of the child,it might be desirable for an alert (e.g., a ring or vibration) of theincoming call to be forwarded to the second device. As anotherpossibility, if certain contacts of a user are “work” contacts,indications of incoming calls from those contacts might be forwardedonly to the second device if it is designated a “work” device, while ifcertain contacts of a user are “personal” contacts, indications ofincoming calls from those contacts might be forwarded only to the seconddevice if it is designated a “personal” device. Note that suchdesignations may not need to be mutually exclusive; for example, a usermight designate some contacts and/or devices as “work” only, others as“personal” only, and still others as both “work” and “personal”.Further, note that the exemplary designations “work” and “personal” areprovided by way of example only, and any number of other designationscould be defined and used, as desired.

Similar selective forwarding considerations could be applied in atemporal manner. For example, indications of incoming calls might beforwarded to a given device only at certain times, e.g., based on one ormore designations or labels and rules applied to one or more contactsand/or to the device.

Furthermore, similar considerations may also be applied to permission toinitiate outgoing calls. For example, certain devices may be permittedto initiate calls only between certain hours and/or to certain contacts.For example, it might be desirable to limit a child's use of thecellular telecommunication capability of a parent's UE, among variouspossibilities.

Another possible selective forwarding mechanism might relate to theactivity level of a device being used as a cellular extension of the UE.For example, the UE might forward indications of incoming calls only toa device if it exhibits a certain activity level, e.g., as might bedetected based on certain activity indicators (such as if the device ison, awake, unlocked, and/or has an active communication connection,among various possible activity indicators). If a device is notavailable, or is available but not sufficiently active, the UE might beconfigured not to forward indications of incoming calls to the device.

As will be recognized by those of skill in the art, the above-describedselective forwarding options represent just a few of numerous possibleselective forwarding options, which could alternatively or additionallybe implemented, as desired.

In 506, the UE may convey communications between the second device andthe cellular network. By doing so, the UE may enable the second deviceto perform cellular telecommunication via the UE. In particular, the UEmay establish a cellular telecommunication link with the cellularnetwork (e.g., via one or more base stations) on behalf of the seconddevice, and may transmit data received from the second device (via acommunication link with the second device) via the cellulartelecommunication link as well as transmit data received via thecellular telecommunication link to the second device. The cellulartelecommunication link may include a circuit-switched communication link(e.g., for voice calls and/or SMS messages). Alternatively, or inaddition, the cellular telecommunication link may include apacket-switched communication link (e.g., for data, possibly includingvoice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) voice calls and/or other types ofcalls). Conveying communications between the second device and thecellular network may effectively provide use of the UE's cellularservice account to the second device for cellular telecommunication.

As noted above, the communication link between the UE and the seconddevice may include any of a variety of types of communication links, forexample including a Wi-Fi wireless local area network (WLAN) or a WAN.It should further be noted that in some cases it may be desirable toinitially establish/utilize an indirect communication link (e.g., via aWi-Fi access point providing a WLAN or via a server accessible via aWAN) for discovery, registration, and/or provisioning, then to establisha more direct type of communication link (e.g., a Wi-Fi peer-to-peerconnection such as according to IEEE 802.11z/tunneled direct link setup(TDLS) or a direct IP link via the WAN) for conveyance oftelecommunication data, e.g., in order to reduce latency and/or powerusage. Alternatively, conveyance of telecommunication data may also beperformed via an intermediary (e.g., a Wi-Fi access point or server), ordiscovery, registration, provisioning, and conveyance oftelecommunication data may be performed via a more direct communicationlink.

Conveying communications may include facilitating initiation of outgoingcommunication (e.g., setting up an outgoing call) and/or facilitatingreception of incoming communication (e.g., answering an incoming call)by the second device.

For example, consider an incoming call to the UE. The incoming call maybe indicated to the UE by the cellular network via a paging message (orsimply “page”). The UE may receive this page and provide an indicationof the incoming page to the second device via the communication linkbetween the UE and the second device. The second device may receive theindication of the incoming page, and if a user answers the call at thesecond device, the second device may transmit an indication respondingto the incoming page to the UE via the communication link between the UEand the second device. The UE may receive this indication, respond tothe incoming page via cellular communication, and establish the call.Thenceforth, communications (e.g., audio data) received from thecellular network may be provided to the second device, andcommunications received from the second device may be provided to thecellular network.

Similarly, consider an outgoing call. A user of the second device mightindicate (e.g., via a user interface) at the second device to initiatean outgoing call, for example by dialing a phone number. The seconddevice might then transmit a request to perform cellulartelecommunication (e.g., to establish a cellular telecommunication linkto a device associated with the dialed phone number) to the UE. The UEmight accordingly receive the request via the communication link betweenthe UE and the second device, and establish a cellular telecommunicationlink with a device associated with the dialed phone number via thecellular network in response to the request. Thenceforth (assuming thecall is successfully placed), similarly to the above-described exampleof the incoming call, communications received from the cellular networkmay be provided to the second device, and communications received fromthe second device may be provided to the cellular network. Thus, in boththe cases of incoming and outgoing calls, the second device may be ableto make use of the UE's cellular telecommunication capability(potentially effectively including use of the UE's cellular serviceaccount, phone number(s), and/or subscriber identity information) toperform telecommunication as a cellular extension of the UE.

Note that while the above examples may relate primarily to voice calls,other forms of cellular telecommunication (e.g., SMS messages) maysimilarly be conveyed between the second device and the cellular networkin a similar manner, if desired.

Note also that the actual conveyance of communications between the UEand the second device may be implemented in any of a number of ways. Asone example, the cellular communications received by the UE from thecellular network may be decoded by the UE and converted to an alternate(non-cellular) format for transmission to the second device. Forexample, a “cellular extension” application executing on the UE mighttranslate audio and/or other data/signaling messages (e.g., pagingmessages) received from the cellular network via cellular communicationinto a different (generic or proprietary) format for transmission to thesecond device. A similar application executing on the second devicemight then interpret and present the data received in the differentformat. A similar data exchange (e.g., including generation andtransmission of data in a non-cellular format by the second device tothe UE, and translation from the non-cellular format to a cellularformat and cellular transmission in the cellular format by the UE) couldbe performed for outgoing data and signaling messages from the seconddevice to the cellular network. Note that in this case, there may be noneed for the second device to implement a cellular stack.

As another example, the cellular communications (e.g., circuit-switchedvoice, SMS, and/or signaling communications) received by the UE from thecellular network may be encapsulated in a non-cellular communicationformat (e.g., for Wi-Fi and/or other non-cellular communication links)for transmission to the second device. In this case, the second devicemay utilize both one or more non-cellular layers (or entire stacks) forprocessing (de-capsulating) the encapsulated cellular data, as well as acellular stack configured to receive and process the cellularcommunications after de-encapsulation. Similarly, the second devicemight generate outgoing data in a cellular format, then encapsulate thecellular data for non-cellular communication to the UE. The UE in turncould de-encapsulate and transmit the received cellular data to thecellular network via cellular communication. Such cellular encapsulationcould similarly be performed by a “cellular extension” applicationexecuting on each of the UE and the second device, in someimplementations; in this case, the cellular extension application mightprovide a cellular stack for the second device. Note that even if thesecond device implements a cellular stack, it may still not be necessarythat the second device actually perform cellular communications, sinceany cellular data generated (or received) by the cellular stack of thesecond device may be encapsulated for (or de-encapsulated from)communication according to a non-cellular communication technology.

As noted above, while provisioning the second device to use cellulartelecommunication capability provided by the UE, various usageparameters and/or preferences could be selected, such as variouspossibilities for selective call forwarding or selective permission toinitiate outgoing calls. For example, with reference to the possibilityof selective forwarding or outgoing call initiation based on contactsassociated with the UE and/or the second device, an “address book”feature might be implemented. The address book may be a memory structureand/or application for storing contact information (e.g., names, phonenumbers, e-mail addresses, text/voice/video chat or VoiP usernames,etc.). The UE may have an address book with sections for the UE and thesecond device, or the UE and the second device may each have addressbooks, among various possibilities. Thus, for example, indications ofincoming calls (pages) and/or permission to initiate outgoing callsmight be provided to the second device or not based on identifying thepresence or absence of an association of the source/destination of theincoming/outgoing call with the second device in the address book. Anynumber of alternative ways of implementing selective forwarding and/orpermission to initiate outgoing calls for specific devices acting ascellular extensions to the UE are also possible.

It should be noted that it may be desirable, especially for conveyanceof voice calls between the second device and the cellular network, toimplement quality of service (QoS) standards, in particular for thecommunication link between the UE and the second device. For example, ifa Wi-Fi link is involved in the communication link between the UE andthe second device (either as the sole/primary link or as part of a WANlink), IEEE 802.11e QoS may be implemented for improving call quality.Additionally, unscheduled automatic power save delivery (U-APSD) may beimplemented, e.g., for power savings, if desired. Other QoS or similarstandards may also or alternatively be used for improving call qualityand/or power savings, as desired.

Note also that while the steps of FIG. 5 are described primarily asbeing performed with respect to the UE and a second device, any numberof other devices might similarly be registered and provisioned to usethe cellular telecommunication capability of the UE, and the UE mightsimilarly convey communications between such devices and the cellularnetwork (e.g., at various times). In other words, one or more stepssimilar to those described above may be performed between the UE and oneor more additional devices, such that multiple devices might beregistered to use the cellular telecommunication capability of the UE atany given time (although it may be possible that only one such devicemight actually use the cellular telecommunication capability of the UEat any given time). For example, the UE might provide an indication ofan incoming page to all (or at least multiple) of the devices registeredto use the cellular telecommunication capability of the UE, and mightrespond to such an incoming page based on receiving a response to theincoming page from any of the devices (or the UE itself). Assuming aresponse to the incoming page is received from one of the devices, theUE might then establish the call between the UE and the cellular networkand convey communications associated with the call between the UE andthe device which responded to the page.

FIG. 6 relates to a method for a device without a cellular radio (butpotentially with a Wi-Fi radio) to make use of a cellular radio in a UE.The method may be performed by the device itself. Note that the methodof FIG. 6 may be complementary to the method of FIG. 5. For example, the“second device” described with respect to FIG. 5 may be the deviceimplementing the method of FIG. 6, while the UE implementing the methodof FIG. 5 may be the UE providing use of its cellular radio to thedevice implementing the method of FIG. 6. As shown, the method mayoperate as follows.

In 602, the device may register with a UE to perform cellulartelecommunication via the UE. Registration may be performed via any of avariety of types of communication links, including Wi-Fi (e.g.,peer-to-peer or via an access point/WLAN) and/or WAN (e.g., theInternet, via a server or a direct IP link). Once the device isregistered (and provisioned with any required or optional configurationinformation), the device and the UE may update the communication link(e.g., to a more direct link such as a peer-to-peer link or a direct IPlink from a less direct link such as a WLAN link via an access point ora WAN link via a server), if desired, or may continue to use the samecommunication link (e.g., if not configured for a more direct link, suchas if one or both of the devices are behind a firewall and don't usenetwork address translation (NAT), or are not configured for Wi-Fipeer-to-peer communication).

In 604, an indication may be transmitted to the UE to establish acellular telecommunication connection with a cellular network. Theindication may take any of a variety of forms, may include any of avariety of types of information and may be provided in response to anyof a number of types of messages. The indication may be transmittedbased on user input (e.g., responding to or initiating a call), whichmight be received via a user interface.

For example, as one possibility, the indication may be an indication toinitiate an outgoing call. In this case, the device might receive userinput indicating a phone number (or other contact information, which thedevice might translate (e.g. into a phone number, using an address bookcorrelation/association between the provided contact information and thephone number) or use directly, as appropriate) to call. The device mightin turn provide an indication of the phone number or other contactinformation to the UE via the communication link between the device andthe UE and a request to initiate a call (or send an SMS message) to thatcontact. The UE might then place (establish) the call via its cellulartelecommunication capability (e.g., using its cellular radio).

As another possibility, the indication may be an indication to respondto an incoming call. For example, the UE might have received a pagingmessage indicative of an incoming call (e.g., from the cellular network,using its cellular radio). The UE might have transmitted an indicationof the paging message (potentially including caller identificationinformation such as a phone number and/or name associated with thecaller) to the device, which the device may in turn have received. Theindication to establish the cellular telecommunication connection withthe cellular network might accordingly be provided to the UE by thedevice in response to the indication of the incoming call, e.g., toanswer the call. The UE might then acknowledge and set up (establish)the call via its cellular telecommunication capability (e.g., using itscellular radio)

Note that it is possible that the device might be actively used at atime that an incoming call is received. For example, the device might becapable of presenting media content (e.g., music, videos, etc.). Ifdesired, the device may be configured to pause or interrupt any (orcertain selected types of) media that is being presented if an incomingcall is received. For example, upon receiving an indication of anincoming page, the device might pause any content which is beingpresented, then present an indication of the incoming call (e.g., atextual or graphic message on a screen, a ringing or beeping, and/oranother type of indication). If the incoming call is accepted, thecontent might continue to be paused, while if the incoming call isrejected (or simply not answered), the device might automatically resumepresentation of the content. Alternatively, the content might continueto be paused until a user manually indicated to the device to continuepresentation of the content.

In 606, telecommunication may be performed between the device and thecellular network via the communication link with the UE and the cellulartelecommunication connection between the UE and the cellular network. Inother words, once the (incoming or outgoing) call has been established,the UE may convey data between the device and the cellular network,thereby extending use of the cellular telecommunication connection ithas established to the device. Thus, data (e.g., audio data) may bereceived from the cellular network by the UE and provided to the device.The device may receive the data and also provide data (e.g., audio data)to the UE. The UE may also receive the data from the device and providethat data to the cellular network.

Note that if desired, similar selective incoming call forwarding and/oroutgoing call permission may be provided as described hereinabove withrespect to FIG. 5. Thus, if desired, indications of selected incomingcalls may be provided to the device while no indications may be providedto the device in the case of other incoming calls, based on any of avariety of considerations. Similarly, indications to establish outgoingcalls from the device might be accepted and acted upon by the UE forattempted selected outgoing calls, but rejected for other attemptedoutgoing calls, based on a variety of considerations, if desired.

Note also that, as also described hereinabove with respect to FIG. 5,the communicative connection between the device and the UE for conveyingtelecommunication may be established as subject to certain QoS and/orpower savings considerations, such as IEEE 802.11e QoS and/or U-APSD,among various possibilities, if desired.

Additionally, note that although in some of the examples describedhereinabove with respect to, inter alia, FIGS. 5 and 6 extension ofcellular communication capabilities by a UE to another device aredescribed as being performed via Wi-Fi communication, any number ofother communication technologies may be used in addition or asalternatives to Wi-Fi for extending a cellular communication capabilityto another device. For example, any of near field communication (NFC),Bluetooth, various local and/or wide area networking technologies,and/or any other non-cellular communication technology may be usedindividually or in combination to provide a communication link between aUE and a device to which the UE is extending use of its cellularcommunication capability.

Embodiments of the present disclosure may be realized in any of variousforms. For example some embodiments may be realized as acomputer-implemented method, a computer-readable memory medium, or acomputer system. Other embodiments may be realized using one or morecustom-designed hardware devices such as ASICs. Still other embodimentsmay be realized using one or more programmable hardware elements such asFPGAs.

In some embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable memory mediummay be configured so that it stores program instructions and/or data,where the program instructions, if executed by a computer system, causethe computer system to perform a method, e.g., any of a methodembodiments described herein, or, any combination of the methodembodiments described herein, or, any subset of any of the methodembodiments described herein, or, any combination of such subsets.

In some embodiments, a device (e.g., a UE) may be configured to includea processor (or a set of processors) and a memory medium, where thememory medium stores program instructions, where the processor isconfigured to read and execute the program instructions from the memorymedium, where the program instructions are executable to implement anyof the various method embodiments described herein (or, any combinationof the method embodiments described herein, or, any subset of any of themethod embodiments described herein, or, any combination of suchsubsets). The device may be realized in any of various forms.

Although the embodiments above have been described in considerabledetail, numerous variations and modifications will become apparent tothose skilled in the art once the above disclosure is fully appreciated.It is intended that the following claims be interpreted to embrace allsuch variations and modifications.

We claim:
 1. A method for a first wireless user equipment (UE) devicecomprising a cellular radio to provide cellular communication capabilityto a second UE device, the method comprising: receiving firstinformation from a second UE device over a non-cellular communicationlink between the first UE device and the second UE device; andforwarding the first information to a cellular network over a cellularcommunication link between the first UE device and the cellular network.2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving secondinformation from the cellular network over the cellular communicationlink; and forwarding the second information to the second UE device overthe non-cellular communication link.
 3. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: registering the second UE device to use cellularcommunication capability provided by the first UE device via thenon-cellular communication link.
 4. The method of claim 3, furthercomprising: selecting one or more usage parameters for selective callforwarding or selective permission to initiate outgoing calls specificto the second UE device.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the cellularcommunication link is established using a first cellular accountassociated with a first phone number to place or receive a voice call;wherein receiving the first information from the second UE device andforwarding the first information to the cellular network provides use ofthe first cellular account associated with the first phone number to thesecond UE device.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the non-cellularcommunication link is a Wi-Fi link.
 7. The method of claim 6, whereinthe Wi-Fi link is provided via an access point.
 8. The method of claim6, wherein the Wi-Fi link is a peer-to-peer Wi-Fi link.
 9. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the non-cellular communication link comprises a linkprovided via a wide area network (WAN).
 10. The method of claim 1,wherein the second UE device does not have a cellular radio.
 11. A firstwireless user equipment (UE) device, comprising: a radio; and aprocessing element operatively coupled to the radio; wherein the radioand the processing element are configured to: receive first informationfrom a cellular network over a cellular communication link between thefirst UE device and the cellular network; and send the first informationto a second UE device over a non-cellular communication link between thefirst UE device and the second UE device.
 12. The first UE device ofclaim 11, wherein the radio and the processing element are furtherconfigured to: receive second information from the second UE device overthe non-cellular communication link; and send the second information tothe cellular network over the cellular communication link.
 13. The firstUE device of claim 11, wherein the radio and the processing element arefurther configured to: select one or more usage parameters for use ofcellular communication capability provided by the first UE devicespecific to the second UE device; and register the second UE device touse the cellular communication capability provided by the first UEdevice via the non-cellular communication link according to the selectedusage parameters.
 14. The first UE device of claim 13, wherein the oneor more usage parameters comprise one or more of: a configuration forselectively forwarding calls to the second UE device; a configurationfor selectively permitting the second UE device to initiate outgoingcalls; or a configuration for selectively providing indications ofincoming calls to the UE based on an activity level of the second UEdevice.
 15. The first UE device of claim 11, wherein the radio and theprocessing element are further configured to: select one or more usageparameters for use of cellular communication capability provided by thefirst UE device specific to each respective UE device of a plurality ofUE devices; and register each respective UE device of the plurality ofUE devices to use the cellular communication capability provided by thefirst UE device according to the selected usage parameters.
 16. Anon-transitory computer accessible memory medium comprising programinstructions which, when executed at a first wireless user equipment(UE) device, cause the first UE device to: receive first informationfrom a cellular network over a cellular communication link between thefirst UE device and the cellular network; send the first information toa second device over a non-cellular communication link between the firstUE device and the second device; receive second information from thesecond device over the non-cellular communication link; and send thesecond information to the cellular network over the cellularcommunication link.
 17. The memory medium of claim 16, wherein thecellular communication link is established using a first cellularaccount associated with the first UE device, wherein when executed atthe first UE device, the program instructions further cause the first UEdevice to: register the second device to use the first cellular accountto access the cellular network by way of the non-cellular communicationlink between the first UE device and the second device.
 18. The memorymedium 16, wherein the non-cellular communication link is established byone or more of: establishing a wide area network (WAN) communicationlink between the first UE device and the second device via a servercomputer; establishing a direct IP link between the first UE device andthe second device; establishing a Wi-Fi link between the first UE deviceand the second device via an access point; or establishing apeer-to-peer Wi-Fi link between the first UE device and the seconddevice.
 19. The memory medium of claim 16, wherein the cellularcommunication link comprises a circuit-switched cellular communicationlink.
 20. The memory medium of claim 16, wherein the cellularcommunication link comprises a packet-switched cellular communicationlink.